GoDaddy goes to great lengths to hide its expired domain warehousing operations.
UPDATE 12/17/08: GoDaddy is shutting down Standard Tactics.
Scottsdale, Arizona based The Go Daddy Group, which runs the world’s largest domain name registrar GoDaddy.com, is warehousing its customers’ expired domain names and profiting from them. The company has taken a number of steps to hide this practice from public view. This article covers the results of a Domain Name Wire investigation into GoDaddy’s domain warehousing activities.
Profiting from Expired Domain Names
When domain names expire, most large domain name registrars try to make money from them. Network Solutions and eNom auction expired domains at NameJet. Register.com auctions domains through SnapNames.
GoDaddy.com and other registrars that are part of The Go Daddy Group don’t use a partner to sell customers’ expired domain names. Instead it auctions them on the company’s own platform originally called The Domain Name Aftermarket (TDNAM). It’s a fairly transparent system. But when a valuable domain doesn’t sell, something not-so-transparent goes on in the background, as described in detail below.
It’s not unique that GoDaddy profits from expired domains. What’s unique are the steps GoDaddy takes to cover up its tracks, that it holds on to some domains that aren’t sold at auction, and its apparent hypocrisy between domains it owns and some of its activities such as combating online pharmacy fraud.
Go Daddy’s Domain Name Warehouse
I first discovered GoDaddy’s domain warehousing efforts in 2005. I noticed a typo domain name that didn’t sell at TDNAM and wasn’t released. It was subsequently monetized by GoDaddy using a domain parking page. At the same time I purchased several domains on TDNAM that had expired but hadn’t sold in the initial auction, much like the typo. Interestingly, I received notification from an email address at StandardTactics.com offering to transfer all of the domains I purchased into my account.
Standard Tactics, LLC, is a The Go Daddy Group subsidiary that takes ownership of valuable expired domains that don’t sell at TDNAM. It then monetizes the domain names using parked domain pages and lists the domains for resale on TDNAM.
The Formation and Structure
When GoDaddy launched TDNAM back in 2005, it finally started cashing in on its customers’ expiring domain names. By auctioning off the domains it was able to generate revenue even when its customers didn’t pay to renew their domains. But GoDaddy understood it could also make money by keeping some of the domain names that didn’t sell at auction for itself.
On August 16, 2005, GoDaddy formed a subsidiary called Standard Tactics, LLC in New Mexico. Before founding Standard Tactics, all of GoDaddy’s subsidiaries were incorporated in Arizona where the company is headquartered. There are a couple reasons GoDaddy may have chosen to form the company as a New Mexico limited liability company rather than an Arizona corporation. First, by creating the company in New Mexico it could distance itself from it. Second, by filing as a limited liability company instead of a corporation, it didn’t have to list directors of the corporation. It only had to list an organizer — Scottsdale, Arizona lawyer Robert J. Rosepink. Rosepink filed the papers in New Mexico and listed the company’s principal address outside the state at 7373 North Scottsdale Rd, Suite E-200 in Scottsdale. That’s the address for Rosepink’s law firm.
GoDaddy says Rosepink is outside counsel for the company.
He may have run in the same circles as GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons in Scottsdale. Both Rosepink and Parsons donated to Jon Kyl’s campaign for U.S. senate.
Earlier this year, Rosepink was indicted on 102 counts by the Arizona Attorney General office for his part in a concert promotion investment scheme. Rosepink allegedly earned nearly $1 million in fees for recruiting investors in what The Arizona Republic labeled a Ponzi scheme. [UPDATE: 12/17/08: In an interview with Parsons on his internet radio show today, Parsons told me that Rosepink was exonerated on all charges. Additionally, he says that Rosepink was merely outside counsel for the company.] [UPDATE 4/3/09: Apparently Rosepink was not exonerated on all charges as Parson said. The Arizona Republic reports today that Rosepink struck a plea bargain with prosecutors and plead guilty to four counts of solicitation or sale of unregistered securities.]
Although GoDaddy did a good job distancing itself from Standard Tactics as a separate company (one source said Standard Tactics was commonly called “a client” of GoDaddy’s even inside the company), GoDaddy’s filing to go public in 2006 provides a definitive link between the two companies. It showed that Standard Tactics, LLC is indeed a subsidiary of GoDaddy. It’s distanced even further from the parent company as a subsidiary of a subsidiary. Special Domain Services, Inc., is a subsidiary of The Go Daddy Group. Standard Tactics, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Special Domain Services, Inc. Special Domain Services, Inc. is also the parent company of GoDaddy’s Domains By Proxy, a whois privacy service that helps people shield their information from the whois database.
GoDaddy’s S-1 filing lists subsidiaries including Standard Tactics, LLC.
Because GoDaddy.com is itself a subsidiary of The Go Daddy Group, the domain registrar could technically say it did not warehouse domain names.
How it Works
GoDaddy is able to determine potential traffic to its customers’ expired domains. When a domain expires, GoDaddy places a parking page with paid advertising on the domain to count traffic. This also gives the company the ability to measure potential revenue. If a domain gets lots of traffic, GoDaddy places a higher starting bid on the domain when it is subsequently auctioned on TDNAM. GoDaddy also discloses estimated traffic to potential buyers. If a high traffic domain doesn’t sell at TDNAM, it is often transferred to Standard Tactics.
Standard Tactics makes money from the domains by placing parked pages on them. It sometimes lists the domains for sale on TDNAM at fixed prices, creating another opportunity to profit.
When Standard Tactics takes over a domain, it typically uses Domains By Proxy’s whois privacy service to hide its identity. There are a couple reasons Standard Tactics may do this. First, it hides the fact that a Go Daddy company owns domains its customers originally registered. This comes in handy when a customer merely forgets to renew a domain and later wants to re-acquire it. It also allows GoDaddy to tell customers that it doesn’t own the domains. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it hides that Standard Tactics’ portfolio includes a number of unsavory domain names including trademarks.
One way to uncover the name of a domain owner that uses whois privacy is to file for arbitration under ICANN’s Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). Whois privacy services are required to disclose the owner’s name when an arbitration is filed. Standard Tactics has been on the losing end of a number of arbitration cases, including for the domains Ambian.org, buy-ambien-now.com, cheapest-ambien.net, JunoDSL.com, and PorschePartSite. It’s especially ironic that Standard Tactics owns prescription drug names since GoDaddy touts its lobbying efforts at the U.S. Congress to stomp out online prescription drug fraud. When I asked Camille Ede, Director of Domain Services at GoDaddy, about the company’s ownership of pharmacy and trademark domains, she said the accusation that the company owned such domains was false. Records at the arbitration companies prove otherwise. In fact, in one UDRP case a Standard Tactics representative asked complainant Sanofi-aventis, a pharmaceutical company in France, to close the arbitration request and that it would transfer the domain automatically:
“Hello
We are aware of the domain dispute that has been filed on this domain. This domain was purchased in a bulk backorder. We do not support trademark infringement. We would like to transfer this domain to you at no cost you.
You will have to contact WIPO to close the dispute before I will be allowed to transfer the domain to you.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Regards
Administrator
Standard Tacticsâ€
In a follow up to my questioning, Ede wrote:
We by no means meant to mislead you about trademarks. We are NOT saying Standard Tactics doesn’t own a variety of names in a variety of different contexts, but disagreed with your characterization. Go Daddy treats all parked pages in the same way. If the trademark holder contacts DBP, asking us to remove…we remove it.
Standard Tactics Today
It’s clear that GoDaddy has taken a number of steps, including setting up a subsidiary in a different state, to cover its tracks warehousing domain names. GoDaddy has over 30 million domains registered, and a quick look at TDNAM shows a number of high traffic domains being auctioned off every day. One source said the company receives millions of hits a week on its Standard Tactics domains.
Ede calls Standard Tactics a “research” subsidiary:
For a number of years, traffic aggregation, monetization and advertising has become an increasingly prevalent aspect of the domain name industry.
As the world’s largest registrar, we felt it was important for us to understand trends and developments in this industry. As a result, we created Standard Tactics as a research group.
All names in Standard Tactics are presented to the public for purchase in TDNAM. We do not withhold these names from TDNAM. There are relatively few names with Standard Tactics and there is randomness built in to the process in order to provide sample types representing all domain characteristics. By comparison, domain aggregators have 100’s of 1000’s of domain names.
This is an interesting response given the multitude of evidence that Standard Tactics acquires domains that don’t sell on TDNAM, including the statement in the above mentioned UDRP that Standard Tactics acquires domains in “bulk backorders”. Whether Standard Tactics technically acquires the domains before or after the auction is irrelevant, although expired domains are in a grace period until after the auction and should not be transferred to a new owner.
Furthermore, Standard Tactic’s web page states that the company buys and sells domain names, that it may own trademarks as a result of bulk purchases, and refers interested buyers to TDNAM.
A phone number for Standard Tactics, found on the whois record for a .us domain name owned by the company (.us domains cannot use whois privacy), has a New Mexico phone number. A Call to the number is answered by a recording that asks you to wait for a representative, and then sends you straight to voicemail. A fax number on the same record is in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area.
Getting former GoDaddy employees to talk about Standard Tactics is a challenge. I contacted former employees who were happy to talk about GoDaddy in general. When I brought up Standard Tactics, a common response was for a brief pause followed by, “I can’t talk about that”.
Perhaps Standard Tactics answers another question: why Bob Parsons is so adamant that customers need whois privacy.
[This story was edited at 2:18 PM CDT on Wednesday, 12/3/08 to include Ede’s response to denying that the company owns trademark and pharmaceutical names.]
Man…..it just gets grosser.
Is everyone a slime ball in the services industry for domains now?
I guess regulation will come since no company can be expected to have morals and integrity anymore.
Very nice work and good info there.
I am quite surprised to see GD doing this.
Thank you for sharing.
Amazing investigation – thanks for doing this!
I hope that Domainers roast Goaddy the way that they did Tucows – at least Tucows was honest and upfront about everything they did.
Great article
Wow!
Outstanding post Andrew! I guess people will figure out my “trick” that I posted about faster then I thought. I wanted people to see it for themself.
This post is going to blow up like a fire storm! Just another reason to be sure to read DNW.com daily!
Jamie Zoch
I have heard that Go Daddy owns hundreds of thousands of domain names. I would call this strategic “cherry-picking” since they have insider information about the value of a domain.
What does Adam Dicker have to say about this unethical business practice?
I think Go Daddy already responded Gerald.
Steve
I don’t see anything wrong with Go Daddy selling off expired names on their auction system that was setup for expired names.
Maybe I am missing something.
Pete
I believe you guys named GoDaddy as best registrar. After reading a few of your recent articles would you still make the same decision?
@ Gerard – this all came about before Dicker joined GoDaddy
@ Peter – has more to do with a) how they tried to cover it up and b) that they own trademark domains
@ Chef Patrick – If by “you guys” you mean DNW, then no. DNW has a reader poll each year, and GoDaddy is ranked highest in that.
great investigative journalism andrew!!!
Gotcha, makes sense Andrew. Even with some of the negative news recently I would still say that GoDaddy is my favorite registrar.
Love the blog, I would say that DNW and Elliots blog are my two of my top three. DNKitchen would be my favorite, I guess because it’s mine 🙂
Agree with the great Chef Patrick,
Godaddy is my registrar of choice but it is a good read.
Pete
I dont get it….They are offering the name for sale yet no one is buying then who cares what they do after it drops past the $5 mark…Maybe im reading this wrong
I’m not bothered that GoDaddy auctions off names, but grabbing trademark names that belong to other companies and hiding the ownership while raking in a cut for redirecting the traffic is STEALING STEALING STEALING. Parsons should go to jail.
Andrew,
Excellent reporting. This is one of your best investigative reports to date.
I believe we starting to see that most of the major registrars are slime.
I wonder how much is going on that we don’t realize.
Ah! Too bad.
DomainDetective.com is already regged. 🙂
@ DN Champ – they aren’t offering them for $5. They make the starting price higher for the domains that get a lot of traffic. If the starting bid is, say $300, and no one bids, then it keeps the domain.
But DomainerDetective.com is available!
@ Andrew…Awww ok..got it! so word to the wise…pay the BIN or never see it again!
Here are a couple examples (sorry for all the links Andrew.
http://www.travelterry.com/notice.html
http://whois.domaintools.com/g13.us
http://whois.domaintools.com/savour.us
Forget Go Daddy…Go Andrew!
Great job, buddy (60 minutes couldn’t do any better) … and; based on all the Scotsdale visitors rushing over to read your great investigative reporting; a big welcome & hello to all the visiting GD employees.
Any worthwhile additional inside info you’d like to share with the industry while you’re here?
Andrew won’t tell Robber Bob; promise.
Andrew
Great work.
Here is another way to look at it.
Say there is a domain like, dishnetwork.net
A clear trademark violation type name.
This is an expired domain and happens to be in auction at TDNAM as we speak.
And lets say the minimum price they put on the domain is $2,880 because the domain is being parked, has a lot of traffic and Godaddy is earning PPC revenue, from people looking for, and lets take a wild guess here, for say Dish Network info.
The domain shows over 4200 monthly visitors
Now if Godaddy sells the domain for $2,880, it is actually making money off of the trademark, because they are selling its anticipated earnings for a year (I was once told by a GD rep. that is how that number is derived).
If no one bids on the name, then they keep the name and they continue to make money off a trademarked domain.
If they didn’t have intentions of keeping the high traffic domains, there would be no purpose of having a higher minimum bid on any domain.
The situation is that GoDaddy does place a high value on high revenue domains, because if the domain doesn’t sell for the high minimum they keep the domain and continue to monetize it, trademark or no trademark.
Any way you look at it, Godaddy is making money off of the traffic from trademarked domains.
Wow, you are quite the investigative journalist. That was fantastic Andrew!
I’n not shocked or bothered by GoDaddy selling expired names. It seems like for some reason everyone is 100% ok with Snapnames doing this, but not anyone else? Its either the old days of drop catching, or let these companies do it for us, then everybody gets a fair shake at it in the auction.
I am however shocked and dismayed that GoDadday turns out to be such big fat hippocrits. They are against all these different categories of domains, yet they profit (probably huge profits) off of them? They were always against domain tasting too, I wonder if Andrew can prove they were tasting or Kiting names as well.
I think the best part of the whole thing is that they named this subsidary, “Standard Practices”. So is gross neglegence a standard practice at GoDaddy? Who is the mastermind that came up with that name?
BTW
DishNetwork.net has a bid at $2,880 so let’s watch this and see who winds up with it.
sorry, I meant “Standard Tactics” not “Practices” but same difference
Go Daddy aka Standard Tactics places backorders on domains that have high traffic on them. At this time, only one backorder is allowed on a domain, so Standard Tactics is now in position one.
The domain goes up for auction. If there is considerable traffic, TDNAM sets a high starting bid. No one bids against it . .. the domain goes to Standard Tactics at the backorder price.
Anyway you look at it, it’s wrong and unethical. AND Go Daddy has ALWAYS said they do NOT own domains.
Also, if the former owner appears, Standard Tactics sells the domain at a tidy profit.
Go Daddy runs scripts to ferret out the high traffic expiring domains.
Do you remember when Go Daddy’s aftermarket came under fire for taking part in auctions . . . isn’t this much worse?
So it turns out GoDaddy was hating on tasters because they were just jealous they didn’t think of it first…
If anyone is having a hard time understanding the news that Andrew has so eloquently reported, refer back to Michael Berkens comment#23.
The ultimate question that I’m left with is: What organization is making an active effort to put a stop to this unfair practice? This has been going on for quite some time. Wealth has been transferred. TRAFFIC is still being held hostage.
Great work Andrew.
good dig andrew. . . There goes your godaddy christmas discount !
Uh oh, the cat is out of the bag. I think it’s about to hit the fan. Lol.
As far as this statement goes…
“There are relatively few names with Standard Tactics”
This is not true. The standard tactics account contains tens of thousands of domain names in it. Just look at http://whois.domaintools.com/g13.us, this shows that admin@standardtactics.com is associated with 538 domains. The admin@standardtactics.com email address is only attached to domains that are not able to have privacy which happens to be .us domains. This means that they have at least 538 .us domain names. Just imagine how many .com’s they own. Lol.
Great story. Just gave it a stumble and a digg. This story only has 3 diggs. 30 comments so far should = 30 diggs! Thanks for your work.
Are you sure that GD is making ALL dropping names available on TDNAM to begin with? I highly doubt it. you can’t tell me that if a name is above a certain value threshold they just don’t transfer it to their ST account right away.
@ BK – Although it’s possible, I’ve got nothing to suggest it does. When you think about it, by changing the starting price the company is basically saying how much they want for the domain. If someone will pay it, they sell. If no one will pay it they hold onto it.
@ JK – notice how GoDaddy said aggregators own “100s of 1000s of domains”. So if GoDaddy has under 199,999 domains, it’s covered by that statement.
I used to work fro Godaddy and can tell you all you want to know..
Many supervisors would buy domains that customers would not pay the $ 80.00 to redeem and then laugh when they got it
Talk about stealing a Domain away from their own customers..
listen 2 a real horror story
http://marc.perkel.com/audio/godaddy.mp3
http://marc.perkel.com/audio/godaddy2.mp3
http://www.nodaddy.com
Andrew,
Congrats on the thorough research. This is a very interesting angle but I think I am going to defend GoDaddy a bit on this. I have no stake in GoDaddy other than that I have been a Wild West Domains reseller since they first offered the program many years ago.
I will say I HATE their 60 day hold for all whois info changes and their email customer service is not very knowledgeable but on balance I have been happy with GD and WWD.
I regularly let maybe 5 to 20 domains drop each month and since I tend to focus on similar keywords, I see my own domains get listed in TDNAM. First for $10 and then for $5 and then, for the few times I have checked, they were available for hand reg again.
Now if you are saying that they are trying to circumvent ICANN restrictions, that would be very bad. If they are not doing anything illegal or against ICANN policy then the real problem is with ICANN, not GoDaddy.
So, I’m probably in the minority here but GD and WWD work for me.
I’ll look forward to the fallout out from the story.
Rob – I think you hit the nail on the head. This is the problem: there is no true ICANN policy either way on this. They are the ones that need to step in and put an end to this obvious insider trading.
I agree, the problem lies in policy & ICANN. Although this is some shiesty activity, it is up to code right? Still the thing that makes this so bad IMHO is GoDaddy’s inability to practice the good politics they preach, and in large volume. I’ll say it again I would just love for someone to prove they’ve been tasting/kiting registrations.
Bottom line BK is right, registrars registering names should be handled just like inside trades.
GD are definitely some smart folks. They became the cheapest registrar for .com a long time ago (in general). They got more registrations than anyone at the expense of small margins, but the data and opportunities that it got them in return have been invaluable. When I didn’t know better, before I was a domainer, I thought that domain registrations must have been a loss leader for them.
Rob, it’s like saying that since it’s not against the law to lie, it’s OK to do it?
Until laws against lying are established, should it be legal to tell lies? The evidence in this case reeks of foul play but who’s going to do anything about it?
This is just another reason that ICANN needs to be held accountable for it’s lack of registrar oversight. But whose going to hold them accountable? Can we actually think of ICANN as the equivalent to the SEC of domaining? I think not.
Screw being a domainer, I’m opening my own registrar =)
@ Rob Sequin – I always appreciate your comments as you look at things from both sides.
From what I can tell, there’s nothing “illegal” about what GD is doing. And it doesn’t violate ICANN policy.
So the question is, was it ethical? If so, why would GD go through all of this trouble to cover up its activities?
Now, as for owning trademark domain names, that of course is “against the law”, in so much as there’s a federal law against it punishable in as a civil matter up to $100k. And it seems hypocritical that the company owned pharma names.
*
Fascinating research, Andrew.
If reselling domains is not against ICANN policy, then why is GoDaddy going to such great lengths to shield their activities?
If registrars aren’t careful about cybersquatting, they WILL end up in court, especially when it becomes apparent that they do have the tools to ferret out TM’s and TM typos and make “reasonable” attempts to avoid them.
*
I’d like to know, Andrew, who gets the money from those auctions most of the time?
I’m completely new to your site and, despite being a long-time developer, haven’t really delved too much into the whole domain name business – although I’m always enormously irritated when I find squatters on any good domain name ideas I have.
I recently noticed sc.com went for several hundred thousand dollars. My question is, who is the beneficiary of that money? If it’s GoDaddy – even without any of the underhand (and they ARE underhand) tactics discussed in your excellent article – how can that possibly be justified?
I can only assume the registrar IS the one making the money since those being auctioned are (almost?) always expired domains, which would mean the previous owner no longer has a claim over it.
Given that GoDaddy sets minimum starting prices on domains up for auction, which is determined by the traffic – possibly amongst other things – it can only be described as insider trading.
And, if GoDaddy is indeed receiving the profits from the auctions, the only logical explanation for WHY they receive the money is that they OWN the domain – how can you possibly sell something that isn’t yours to sell?
Even IF they didn’t set minimum auction prices, how can they justify making ALL the money from an auction of something they don’t own? When someone sells something on eBay, eBay takes a small cut of the sale price, not the whole sale price – they don’t own the item so they’re not the one that gets the money for it.
If NO ONE owns the domain, the only scenario that works (other than first come, first served) is an auction where GoDaddy takes a set fee for hosting the auction and the money goes to, well, somewhere else. To charity or something.
GoDaddy cannot claim they own no domains if they are making money from selling domains that is not a simple commission. In every transaction, there must be a buyer and a seller. We know the buyer but who is the seller if it’s not GoDaddy? And if GoDaddy IS the seller, that can only mean they own the domain.
Assuming, of course, GoDaddy the money from the auction goes into GoDaddy’s coffers.
Very impressive research and reporting here on domain name wire. Another interesting and informative story…
PERFECT
I vote Andrew as the best investigative journalist in the domain industry with this article. I pointed the finger at Godaddy months ago, but I didn’t have the time to get the damning information that Andrew found in this article. It’s a
“Nobel Domainer Prize” winner.
For those who still, amazingly, believe in GoDaddy (maybe Danica is the selling point for them), I advise them to read the writing on the wall, as this Domainnamewire wall.
Let’s start hearing some recommendations for a “replacement” registrar for domain noobies who actually think Godaddy is right for their “domain investments”.
EXCELLENT JOB, ANDREW!
ICANN is the root of a lot of problems. We have stated many times that ICANN refuses to protect the rights of current lease holders.
This is a blatant neglect of fiduciary rights of all current lease holders. The truth of the matter is registrars will sell you a lease ,but they accept no fiduciary responsibility that you will keep the lease till expiration. This is why in all the hyjacking of leases by Kentucky-and contless others ICANN has been completely SILENT, as if lease holders have no rights. Is this a problem? As Sarah Palin says ” You BETCHA “
Oh Please – more GoDaddy bashing…
I use many different regsitrars and they all have somewhat questionable practices in one area or another, but this story is a bit over the top.
You’re mixing issues of the practice of keeping domians that have expired and not been purchased in auction. So what? They ALL do this in one way or another.
And the issue of a sub-subsidary holding some obscure pharmacuetical domain names.
Give us a break. Who cares? If they are breaking copyright law and the owner wants the name, they can get it the same way anone else would.
Good job on getting a stir going though. People love to bash GoDaddy. A side effect of being #1 I guess. Jealousy always involved there.
Or maybe it is just all Danicas fault 🙂
In post #44, Andrew raises the most important points.
Even though GD is not violating Icann’s rules, they are still being unethical.
Do you really want to trust your valuable (money making) domains with a registrar that is just waiting to confiscate them for themselves?
Logically, they will offer the best transfer price for .com’s because they want the domains under their control when you don’t renew them in the future.
The few pennies they make from transfered in domains will pay them back hundreds or thousands of dollars in the future.
And, in the meantime, you are paying them to safeguard your domains.
Plus, what a great tool for them to decide which domains to keep for themselves by tasting the domains for the few weeks following the renewal date.
Moreover, by them tasting the domains right after the expiration date, do you really think they care if AppleMarketing is pointed towards Apple links? Or, IBMovies is pointed towards IBM links?
If Apple files an UDRP the week after the expiration date, is the domain owner guilty of TM infringements? Will Godaddy charge their typical UDRP fee against the domain owner? $29 ??
I see some simularities between Godaddy’s business practices and Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s conduct.
On the surface, they both project they are against illegal and unethical activities.
But, behind closed doors, they are breaking the law. Plus, betraying the people closest to them.
Godaddy is just waiting to take all of the sheep to slaughter for their economic gain.
I think this story will send me to TDNAm to buy some of the domains that are priced higher because they earn more.
This story is all about bashing Godaddy. It’s always the same 25-50 people that jump on and bash Godaddy whenever possible.
A true domainer would take this story and see that maybe they should pay more attention to TDNAM and buy names off there since the pricing is clearly an indication of value based on Andrew’s article.
The the domain whiners whine about godaddy. let the domainers learn and see if there are some good bargains there.
Good article Andrew.
Pete
Andrew
Tech Crunch has now picked up the story
Congrats
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/04/AR2008120400170.html
I did not read it as bashing, just telling an interesting story of GoDaddy corporate structure, operations, and public relations. Objective, professional – great writing, Andrew. Keep it up.
I’m still an admirer of Bob’s work but his duplicitous crusade against tasting while he practiced something only subtly different disappointed me.
@ 51 Paul – in the case of SC.com, the person who sold the domain got the money. Expired domain auctions are different. In the case where a registrar has an exclusive drop agreement with an auction company, the money goes to the registrar at which the domain was expired minus a cut to the auction company. In the case of GoDaddy, it uses its own auction house so it gets to keep all of the money.
Thanks for your reply, Andrew.
Based on what you’ve said, then, it seems apparent that GoDaddy MUST become the owner of the domain once it has expired, else there can be no justification at all for selling expired domains at different prices, based entirely on perceived (GoDaddy-calculated) value.
As a developer, it would be like me saying to someone, “Well, I would normally charge $x for that piece of work but, because I think it’s something that’ll make you money, I’m going to put my prices up.”
In ANY arena, such a practice would be looked upon very unfavourably. And you know what would happen if I said that to them – they’d tell me to go take a running jump and give someone else the work.
Also, if a domain’s listed on GoDaddy’s auction site, I’m assuming it cannot be registered through another registrar – say, 1and1.com. That, too, implies ownership of the domain rests with GoDaddy.
@ Paul – when a domain expires there is a grace period in which the registrar doesn’t really own the domain but controls it. So when it expires and GoDaddy lists it on TDNAM, it may not technically be the owner of it. From what I understand, the domain is only transferred to its subsidiary if it doesn’t get a bid at auction.
Ah, I think we’re talking semantics now and we probably both have the same dislike of the terminology.
The registrar says it doesn’t OWN the domain but CONTROLS it, which is tantamount to the same thing when the result is that they realise any and all payment for it.
When someone dies, a solicitor CONTROLS someone’s estate but that doesn’t mean they get anything more from it than their standard solicitor fees.
@Paul
Ok, here is how I believe it works:
When a domain name expires it isn’t actually (technically) over yet. Upon expiration it enters into a grace period (someone help me with the technical jargon, but it think its called RGP, or Renewal Grace Period). I believe after this it goes to a RHP (renewal Hold Period).
So I believe the deal is once a domain expires, the registrar has the right to take possesion of it, and then the domain is subject to each registrar’s individual policies.
Some registrars will take your domain the second it expires, and if you call and complain within the RGP they will allow you to re-activate it, but for a harsh penalty. Other registrars will allow you to reactivate for just about no penalty. Some registrars won’t take the domain the second it expires, but leave it in your account a little bit longer, and put it in bold letters “STATUS = EXPIRED, RENEW NOW”, or something like that. These are the nice registrars.
Now I don’t think the domain can be transfered to another users account (other than an account owned by the registrar) during the RGP, or RHP, but I wonder if the registrar trys to sell it for a high price during these periods, and then if it sold, the registrar immediately re-purchases the domain themselves at the end of the RGP/RHP, and then just flips it over to the person that bought it at auction. When you win an expired domain at GoDaddy it does warn you that even though you won, its not official until 5 more days of the registrant failing to renew.
Definitely a system of questionable ethics but ok as to the letter of ICANN’s policy. If the registrar was truly a saint they would give you access to the domain until the very end of the RGP (and some do I think).
What it sounds like to me (again if I’m off on this or terms, someone please correct me) is that GoDaddy starts tracking the performance of the domain the second it enters RGP (its like free tasting!). When it gets to the last week of RGP they start the auction. The auction ends just as the RHP begins. As soon as the RHP ends, if you won the auction then GoDaddy buys the domain themselves, then transfers it to your GoDaddy account.
But in the end of all this, the answer to your question is: yes the registrar gets to keep all the money from the sale, because they did have their flag stuck in it when they sold it.
BTW, I hear that some registrars give the expired registrant a cut of the proceeds in the even this happens. I don’t believe GoDaddy does though.
Analytics don’t have to be run before expiration. Go Daddy knows traffic history on any domain.
Know that we are not talking chump change here. Go Daddy’s parked domains earn in excess of $350,000 a month.
They may have stats on every domain as far as traffic/impressions goes, but they can’t get any Revenue data until they park it.
So you are saying this data they have before experimentation must be based on DNS queries right?
Go Daddy shares nothing with the original registrant.
That means from the second the domain is parked during the expiration stage to the auction up to the day the domain is transferred to the new owner or goes into Standard Tactics’ coffers.
Yes, and that’s what prompts the backorder procedure to ensure Standard Tactics remains in first position.
Great research Andrew, well deserve all the attention and syndication it gets. Keep up the good work!
Sahar
Great investigative writing. I am a bit surprised that Godaddy would be involved in this type of activity.
However, I really don’t think anyone should even attempt to take a moral high ground here, as almost every domainer tries to profit from expiring domain names. I think this is just a case of the unfair advantage that Godaddy would have in this scenario.
We can take a moral high road.
1. Go Daddy has always stated they don’t own domains.
2. They are using insider information to purchase valuable domains at a huge discount.
3. They take a stand against online pharmas, yet they own AND profit off pharma domains.
4. They take a stand against TMs, yet they own AND profit off TMS.
People keep saying that since the domains don’t sell in auction that is OK.
Has anyone seen the reserve prices on these domains. They are ridiculously high. In other words, they are not really on auction, they are for sale.
In other words, they are doing what Tucows does. The problem is that this practice does not motivate them to hlep people renew their domains.
Kind of scary really. I have some good domains at Godaddy and now I have to keep a better eye on them.
Your next Godaddy storoy should be about their no risk transfer scam. If your transfer doesn’t go through you have to call them to get the money back and it is a big hassle. I know,I have transferred thousands of domains there and I lost hundreds of dollars.
Oh and how about how they renew you for all sorts of stuff like parking that you never signed up for.
Bad Bad Daddy,
How do you know that they get $350,000 from revenue from these domains? Is that a substantiated fact or are you just guessing?
I am curious because those stats would probably be very protected.
– Tan
Peter M is right. We actually all benefit from this information. Of course I wouldn’t keep my names at GoDaddy, but I hope everyone else does. That way if they let them expire then I’ll be able to make a more informed decision when buying them.
I just think everyone is mad here because apparently the pot has been calling the kettle black, and we just found out about it.
Nobody likes a hippocrate.
I just searched for “GoDaddy” in google. On page #1, results #4 & #9 go to this article, well actually not this article exactly, but it goes to where the Washington Post picked up this article.
Like JP said, go benefit from your new knowledge and buy from TDNAM since now we know the names have value.
Namejet,Pool,Snap don’t give us these tips.
I bid on 2 today, hopefully I get them.
Pete
I believe Enom is even worse than Godaddy when it comes to unethical practices and TM infringements.
The difference is – Godaddy openly states they are the “Good Guys”.
Enom doesn’t say they are “Good Guys”.
Enom tries to stay out the spotlight because they don’t want the scrutiny of their activities.
Bad Bad Daddy is a former employee.
“Know that we are not talking chump change here. Go Daddy’s parked domains earn in excess of $350,000 a month.” This is conservative.
Standards Tactics has more than 400,000 domains.
I think the lesson here is don’t let your name get close to expiration. The domains I value are all registered for 10 years ahead of time and will continue to be renewed every year. That way if there is an issue I have 9 years to work it out 🙂
cmon guys, I was sure this one was going to hit 100 comments
@ JP: “I just think everyone is mad here because apparently the pot has been calling the kettle black, and we just found out about it.
Nobody likes a hippocrate.”
I’m with you on that. This is the same company that complained that people were setting up multiple registrars to get .eu domains, and that was fair. It complained about domain tasting too. Both of these activities were technically “within the law”, but were questionable nonetheless. Perhaps the reason Bob Parsons was mad about these two things is he didn’t think of them first.
Excellent journalism! Great investigation, keep it coming! 🙂
@Andrew: What is the alternative for many people these days? Enom is grabbing domains like crazy through its many registrars. Namecheap uses enom (although I fully trust namecheap). Tucows is okay but you’re looking at near $10/domain. Register/NSI aren’t great with pricing. Dotster offers decent pricing for domainers but I’m still weary. Moniker/Name.com both have glitches with their panels. Dynadot has been rock solid. Gandi.net is rock solid but their support is delayed. Who knows what Directnic is doing these days, they still don’t have a way to bulk manage.
Cheer up everyone
Godaddy just announced they are buying more Superbowl commercials.
Wonder where all that money is coming from?
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2008/12/04/20081204biz-godaddy1205-ON.html
@ Ross – What do you mean by Moniker having a glitch in its panel? Do you mean domain management?
Andrew,
Correct, if you check out dnforums you’ll notice people talking about it. At first Moniker denied it but now they say they are working on it.
This is an excellent article, Andrew. You know my opinion about GoDaddy already; to say the least, I was not surprised to see GD warehouse its clients’ domain names.
Congratulations on the TechCrunch coverage! Would you be willing to share the traffic you’re getting from that article? 😉
An amazing article, Andrew. You should win some awards for this one. I thought I was reading the New York Times or another major newspaper. I bet Bob Parsons is feeling the heat.
Leonard
If one doesn’t renew their apartment lease, can’t its apartment owner make money from it as they see fit without others complaining it’s unfair?
Then again, don’t some of us have an unfair advantage over others for something? I sincerely hope some of you complaining about this aren’t having some “edge” over others for whatever that is.
@ David
The difference between an apartment owner making money from a valuable property when a lease expires and a registrar making money from a valuable domain when the ownership (lease) expires is that the registrar categorically states that they don’t OWN the domain.
If an estate agent bumped the price of an apartment up to 3 times as much but only gave the OWNER the “standard” amount, there’d be uproar.
My contention is that if you don’t own something, you can’t sell it as if you do. There are a bunch of computers in this office – I can’t list them all on eBay and pocket the money for them myself because they’re not mine to sell. I’m the person who always sits at this particular computer but it still give me no more right (as a “controller”) to sell this one than any of the others.
Andrew,a thread at NamePros,all disagree with you.
News of Andrew’s report is spreading MAINSTREAM… yipes! First on TechCrunch, (where the writer needs some grammer and spelling lessons), but then the Washington Post picks it up!
Way to go, AA.
link
For more information on how most registrars use the expiring domain system to enrich their coffers, see my blog article here, with Andrew’s permission:
link
*thanks Andrew
@ William – what’s there to disagree with? The article doesn’t say what GoDaddy is doing is right or wrong. It just says they’re doing it, and jumping through a lot of hoops to cover it up.
Here’s a couple other nice things they are now doing:
1. If you do a redirect, their DNS kicks in but they don’t allow the domain’s traffic to redirect immediately. They leave their ads on you domain for anywhere b/t one to six hours, before they allow the redirect to kick in, so as to make some extra PPC change before the redirect kicks in. I sent them a nasty email yesterday about this. There were TM ads all over some of my prized generics and I hit the roof and let them know it too.
2. If you let a domain expire they now remove it from your account much sooner than before (at what exact day I am not sure). This is so you won’t renew it and most likely will forget about it and then they can make PPC money on it until it goes to auction, whereby they make money again off of the domain sale.
Ok……many will argue that with #2 if I don’t pay for the domain then it is no longer mine, but I think I should be able to renew it up to the deletion stage and I think the domain should be in my account, as an expired domain, available for renewal, even at the $80 fee. However, it’s not in your account…. they remove it so you forget you were ever the owner. Most other registrars leave it in your account for a long time. I do know some take your domain immediately after non-payment, but I expect more from Godaddy
Warren Adelman did not tell Adam Dicker about Standard Tactics. He did not believe that he could trust Adam with this information, nor did he want Adam or Aftermarket’s departmental numbers to benefit from the shady practice.
Adam for a year now has been stating that Go Daddy needs to get in the business of buying expired domains — so don’t give him any credit for being an ethical guy.
I left a comment on the CEO’s blog and I got a response from them! lol
Dear Judi,
Your comment on our CEO’s blog has been directed to the Office of the President for review. Thank you for taking the time to contact us about some of the inaccuracies about our subsidiary, Standard Tactics.
Standard Tactics was created as a research entity. As the world’s largest registrar, Go Daddy strives to provide our customers with the best products and services available and believes knowing such data is our responsibility in order for us to understand industry trends and developments.
All domain names in Standard Tactics are, in fact, presented to the public for purchase. These names are not withheld from the domain aftermarket site, TDNAM. There are relatively few names with Standard Tactics. The process involves random selection in order to provide sample types representational of all domain characteristics.
Thank you for taking the time to pose your question. Please do feel free to contact us if there are further matters with which we may assist.
Respectfully,
Luke Hintze
@ Judy (98) – did the delete your comment from the blog? Seems pretty sanitized over there.
Here’s what bothers me. They’re still just playing semantics.
1. First of all, who are they saying suggested that the domains aren’t first offered on TDNAM before they decide to keep them? I think my story, at least, is very clear:
“If a domain gets lots of traffic, GoDaddy places a higher starting bid on the domain when it is subsequently auctioned on TDNAM. GoDaddy also discloses estimated traffic to potential buyers. If a high traffic domain doesn’t sell at TDNAM, it is often transferred to Standard Tactics.”
2. You should ask them how many domains are a “relative few”. Their comment that I published in the article refers to domain aggregators as having “100s of 1000s” of domains. To me that would mean 200,000 or more. So does GoDaddy have 199,999? Is that relatively few? If it truely was a low number they would just come out and say it. If it was for research purposes (and we know it isn’t) it would be 1,000 or fewer domains.
I got distracted while writing this comment so Andrew got his up before mine. Anyway, here is what I think about GD’s response:
Anyone want to find some examples of domains that Standard Tactics owns that are not for sale at TDNAM? I’m guessing there are a few.
Hmmm… problems with this statement:
GD Says: “Godaddy doesn’t own domains”.
I say: That’s weird, then when you sell the domains at aftermarket prices, where does the money go? That kinda means you owned those names, or if you claim the original registrant still owns them, then you are stealing from them?
GD Says: “There are relatively few names with Standard Tactics”
I say: Relative to what? The number of domains registered at GoDaddy? Sure. Not compared to the number of names I deal with in a year, or probably even the number of domains Frank Schilling has in his portfolio.
This is getting ridiculous. Its Bold Faced Hippocracy.
I guess the slow economy allows people to spend time with nonsense. If people don’t renew domain names, how is that of concern. Stop blaming Godaddy and renew your names and you have nothing to worry about with Godaddy, Netsol or anywhere else.
Bottom line: Renew your names or don’t complain if someone else gets them.
Good story Andrew,
Joel
Actually, DomainTools shows 1,594 domains with Standard Tactics that aren’t protected with whois privacy. Anyone want to splurge $452 for the report?
The story is more about what ICANN should do to adjust their rules. We have had 4-5 cases of registrars keeping and auctioning off names. ICANN neds to set the rules for all registrars to follow.
G.
@ Gunther – ICANN can’t just change its rules. There is a process and it’s a bottom up organization. I’m going to write an article about that.
@ Andrew (100)
I’d also like to know what sort of research they claim to be undertaking. What research IS THERE for a registrar to undertake?
Perhaps it’s for a PhD Thesis entitled “Optimal Profit: How To Make Maximum Money For Minimum Effort (And How To Hide It)”
The first rule of Standard Tactics is nobody talks about Standard Tactics.
Thanks for a thorough article. I just let a few domains with minor traffic expire. Thanks to your article I am now convinced to watch what’s going to happen to them after grace period.
So far GoDaddy proved to be less and less credible and even though I keep majority of my domains there anyway, I am diversifying between DG, NameCheap and Moniker.
I know for a fact that Standard Tactics WAS NOT created as a research entity. It is purely for profit.
However, they do use Standard Tactic’s HUGE domain portfolio to run tests on different PPC ads, ad placement, and 3rd party vendors.
The Office of the President’s claim makes no sense whatsoever.
Go Daddy has access to thousands of domains that have been cancelled in advance of their expiration date but have not gone to the registry. If they wanted domains to play with they have the perfect opportunity.
Go Daddy wants domains with traffic so they can maximize the revenue.
@Ross: “Who knows what Directnic is doing these days, they still don’t have a way to bulk manage.”
directNIC is still here and still selling domains. We are adding services. If there is something that you need there, drop support a line. Most import to yoiu guys, we are offering discounts more than we ever did. Use the promo code DNwire0812 on a new account and get $8.75 on most TLDs.
@Paul F. Graham
Largely agree, although it’s meant as an analogy, of course. One problem here, though, is warehousing hasn’t really been defined yet, inspite of a clause in the ICANN registrar agreement so-called “banning” that.
So far only one measure has been made, but it’s intended to address domain tasting. ICANN said they’re considering looking into this, so time will tell how it goes.
Of course, all this is largely arising from the expectation that an expired domain name should drop, which was how things happened back then in a less predictable manner. How things have changed.
Wnat more dirt from former employees chack http://www.nodaddy.com
@Michael,
I’ve had no problems with your service, I haven’t moved domains in yet but I have the option to. The thing that worries me is the kenyatech accusations and the lack of bulk management.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/163/ripoff0163793.htm
The lack of proper locking as a default.
In my modest opinion Godaddy is a company of thieves.
Not sure if this is by mistake or by design but Godaddy’s auction site http://TDNAM.com is down.
I REALLY hope they don’t take this auction down because of this story.
That would really SUCK!
I buy A LOT of domains off TDNAM.
@Rob Sequin
It’s working for me. 🙂
What should I do with the domain name http://www.StandardTacticsSucks.com? Any ideas?
For now it is parked @ Sedo
I see going to GoDaddySucks.com or F#*@GoDaddy.com directs you to GoDaddy.com.
Interesting indeed.
LOL they use their lawyer to pick up any name with godaddy in it claiming copyright infringement….. check http://www.nodaddy.com
Go Daddy owns the trademark “Daddy” if it has to do with the domain industry.
Makes good business sense.
@Ross
Oh.. KeynaTech, now was a customer that is still a thorn in my side.
As for bulk features, they are there but the links only show when you have 10 or more domains. We try to tailor the interface to the user where we can. We feel that have a bulk modify option, when you only have 2 domains was unneeded clutter.
As for locking, you should be able to set the locking with a click of a button (but that interface is getting a re-write too).
@Michael,
Are you saying Kenyatech isn’t owned by Sigmund? Does it have any other affiliations with Intercosmos other than being a customer of DirectNic?
@Ross
That would be correct. They did register a lot of domains with directNIC, but there weren’t directNIC employees doing work for Kenyatech as the various pages out there make it out to be. (big thorn, as I was saying)
I love it – you post an article slamming godaddy, yet you link to GoDaddy with a commission junction (cj.com) affiliate link, in the desperate hopes you might make a couple of bucks off them. Real classy.
It’s sad that GoDaddy resorts to this. It’s one thing to make money and a profit, it’s another to do it in a nefarious manner and explicitly know you’re doing something wrong by trying to keep it hidden. That’s just plain evil.
I’ve been using GoDaddy for years, usually registering 4 or 5 domains a year when I get ideas for websites. Everytime I’m annoyed with the amount of “offers” and “discounts” they shovel in my face for a simple order. I’ve been wondering if I should find a better registrar. This investigation has convinced me to do so, and like with any company that has been exposed, I’ll vote with my wallet by taking my money to their competitors.
Shame on you, GoDaddy!
@Bob,
Pretty silly comment there. He wasn’t “slamming” Godaddy, he was just writing an informative article and pointing out some hypocrisy.
@ Bob – do you really think I expect someone to click through on this article and register domains at GoDaddy? C’mon. I use an autolinking system that automatically changes the first incident of “GoDaddy” in a post to the link, so I can’t just turn it off for a particular post.
“A lot of businesses giving out pink slips for the holidays, but we’ll talk to one CEO who’s hiring by the hundreds!”
Go Daddy may be hiring a limited number of highly technical employees but they are only hiring for attrition on the call center side. In the past, Go Daddy had mass amounts of new employee training sessions. Right now they have none scheduled. Sales and revenue are down.
When Mr. Parsons brings up the 2008 SuperBowl ad, he will state that Go Daddy received the highest number of website traffic on the day it aired. Traffic did not equate to increased sales. I know this because I viewed the reports.
Moreover, Go Daddy’s holiday party is in poor taste given the current economic conditions. As the Arizona Republic featured yesterday, local companies are cutting back and/or donating to the community. Go Daddy should be adopting Google’s way of thinking.
Anything Go Daddy does is for publicity. The holiday party is not about the employees but about how much air and print time Go Daddy can garner from the press. $2mm for the party is cheap if they receive more than that in press exposure.
@Andrew to Bob (#132)
OH SNAP! heh — nice one, Double A.
@ And for Go Daddy Employee of the Year — I love it when past employees reveal the real dirt. Good job. I worked for Godaddy on suggesting and advising their “expert domain” checkbox allowing domainers to avoid the nauseating 10 page upsell that Bob Parsons proudly uses to suck his “beginner” domain owners into hopefully buying something they don’t need. (I don’t even know if Godaddy uses this “bypass” I created for them back in 2004, since I never register domains there anymore)
Once those millions of domain owners who only have 1 or 2 domains at GoDaddy see that they are really only a small mistake away from losing their domains, things will begin to look dark for GD. Mr. Parsons makes so much money from his ‘cheap discount buffet’ registrar, he can flaunt large amounts of extra cash for scummy Super Bowl commercials and produce “we’re in the money” parties for his employees hoping for media coverage. I’d be proud of Bob if he spent a million helping rebuild New Orleans, or donated to breast cancer research.
Nothing wrong with any of Bob’s excess cash, except that it’s very close to looking like Merrill Lynch a few months before they died, but all the top execs got out with most the gold.
If Godaddy was a serious participant in the discussions regarding the domain industry, I wouldn’t be so harsh, but of all the top registrars, notice that GD doesn’t even bother having some poor PR sap to at least post some responses in defense of Godaddy procedures. Why doesn’t Bob do this? Because he looks at the rest of the domain industry with no respect.
For those who posted “wahhh, it’s the same 25 people complaining about Godaddy”, we know who you are, and who you make your money from. I guarantee you that GoDaddy has some powerful enemies watching their every move, and it’s only a matter of time until GD may get that “Breaking News Alert” where they are the subject of several legal investigations.
This industry needs EVERYONE to focus on creating a good, ethical image for the mainstream business/public sector. GoDaddy prefers to take the “Girls Gone Wild” public image.
For any beginning domainer or anyone just wanting to buy a domain, seriously consider using a more committed and less flamboyant registrar, such as Rebel.com. Same prices, better service, less scummy aftertaste.
Please post all your complaints on http://www.nodaddy.com let the world and (elvis) Bob know we are watching the Scumbag
I am a former employee of Godaddy.com.
Just before I left the domain name auctions began, and it was widely mentioned around the office as a cash cow to profit from reselling them.
Nothing GD does would shock me. They are about pure profit.
If you call in to their helpdesk the employee taking the call has a sales quota that they have to make. How’s that for bad service?
Standard Tactics 16 Rules
1. We can keep you out of your comfort zone.
2. Never give up your domains we sell them behind your back.
3. When you are ready to quit, we have met our goal.
4. Accept the worst possible outcome.
5. Focus on what has just happened to your domains.
6. Take things a day at a time, we take the domains one at the time.
7. If you move forward we can mess you up with our legal beagle..
8. Our Supervisors are trained liars.
9. Remember you are of no significance to us.
10. Anything that we manage will disapear.
11. Pay attention to your domains we dont.
12. Never push us around we use Standard Tactics
13. Never expect liers to be fair.
14. Solve your own problems we wont.
15. Don’t take us too seriously.
16. There’s no reason to smile.
Here they can hide the domains again LOL..
Domain Name: proxyking.us
Status: clientDeleteProhibited, clientRenewProhibited, clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Expiration Date: 2009-03-30 23:59:59
Creation Date: 2007-03-31 20:32:58
Last Update Date: 2008-05-12 14:58:18
Name Servers:
ns13.domaincontrol.com
ns14.domaincontrol.com
Created by Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Last Updated by Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Registrant Contact Information:
Name: Standard Tactics, LLC
Organization: Standard Tactics LLC
Address 1: 433 Paseo de Peralta
City: Santa Fe
State: NM
Zip: 87501
Country: US
Phone: +1.5052160704
Fax: +1.4802474081
Email:
Administrative Contact Information:
Name: Standard Tactics, LLC
Organization: Standard Tactics LLC
Address 1: 433 Paseo de Peralta
City: Santa Fe
State: NM
Zip: 87501
Country: US
Phone: +1.5052160704
Fax: +1.4802474081
Email:
Technical Contact Information:
Name: Standard Tactics, LLC
Organization: Standard Tactics LLC
Address 1: 433 Paseo de Peralta
City: Santa Fe
State: NM
Zip: 87501
Country: US
Phone: +1.5052160704
Fax: +1.4802474081
Email:
Billing Contact Information:
Name: Standard Tactics, LLC
Organization: Standard Tactics LLC
Address 1: 433 Paseo de Peralta
City: Santa Fe
State: NM
Zip: 87501
Country: US
Phone: +1.5052160704
Fax: +1.4802474081
Email:
GODADDY.CA really??? at tucows address and faxnumber and domaindirect ???
WHOIS search results
Domain name: godaddy.ca
Domain name status: EXIST
Domain number: 2285422
Approval date: 2008/04/18
Renewal date: 2010/04/18
Registrar name: Go Daddy Domains Canada, Inc
Registrar number: 2316042
Registrant name: GoDaddy.com – TMA663703
Registrant number: 1580399
Registrant description:
Administrative contact
Name: Pam Bunn
Job title:
Postal address: GoDaddy.com
14455 N. Hayden Road, Suite 219
Scottsdale AZ 85260 United States
Phone: +1.4805058800
Fax:
Email: dns@jomax.net
Technical contact
Name: Domain Direct
Job title:
Postal address: Domain Direct
96 Mowat Avenue
Toronto ON M6K 3M1 Canada
Phone: +1.4165312084
Fax: +1.4165315584 *********
Email: dnstech@domaindirect.com
Name servers last changed: 2008/08/13
Name servers:
DNS 1 hostname: cns1.secureserver.net
DNS 2 hostname: cns2.secureserver.net
DNS 3 hostname: cns3.secureserver.net
DNS 4 hostname:
DNS 5 hostname:
DNS 6 hostname:
WHOIS search results
Domain name: domaindirect.ca
Domain name status: EXIST
Domain number: 885899
Approval date: 2003/12/31
Renewal date: 2009/12/31
Registrar name: Tucows.com Co.
Registrar number: 156
Registrant name: TUCOWS International Inc.
Registrant number: 27673
Registrant description: Internet Services Wholesaler
Administrative contact
Name: Edward Gray
Job title: Manager Central Services
Postal address: TUCOWS International Inc.
TUCOWS International Inc.
96 Mowat Avenue
Toronto ON M6K 3M1 Canada
Phone: +1 (416) 535-0123
Fax: +1 (416) 531-5584
Email: dnsadmin@tucows.com
Technical contact
Name: Edward Gray
Job title: Manager Central Services
Postal address: TUCOWS International Inc.
TUCOWS International Inc.
96 Mowat Avenue
Toronto ON M6K 3M1 Canada
Phone: +1 (416) 535-0123
Fax: +1 (416) 531-5584 ********
Email: dnsadmin@tucows.com
Name servers last changed: 2008/12/02
Another Godaddy Domain Warehouse or Research ???
Global Research Network, LLC
Global Research Network, LLC
0 reviews Rate & Review
14455 N Hayden Road, Suite 219, Scottsdale, AZ 85260
Phone: (481) 624-2500
Web Link http://www.grnwebs.com
Caught Scumbob again….
@ Dirtdaddy – just looks like a reseller account to me. Address on whois shows Colorado.
I recently found that I am no longer the owner of my domain name even though payment was made to GoDaddy until 2010. Communications with them have resulted in them advising me that they can not respond to me as I am not the owner of the domain name. They have advised I must contact the owner to sort the situation out. I have no idea who to contact as they will not give me the information. At this point I have lost my domain name which will have a severly detrimental effect on my small company and unless they respond positively, it appears I have been ripped off regarding the payment made to GoDaddy which is insignificant compared to the business I will loose.
“I recently found that I am no longer the owner of my domain name even though payment was made to GoDaddy until 2010.”
Ian,
GoDaddy gives you the opportunity to print out a receipt of any transaction once concluded.
Did you print out a receipt?
Do you have it?
GoDaddy also sends a couple of emails after
you register a domain including an Order Confirmation.
Do you have either of those emails?
Do a Search of your email archives for any emails from @godaddy.com.
The GD confirmation email will show the Receipt #, domain name, price paid & # of years paid for.
The receipt # will help prove your
claim.
Did you have the domain locked?
Was it on auto-renew?
Was your credit card info correct and current including the Expiration Date?
Is the registration date in the WhoIs continuous from the date you registered it?
Or does it show a newer registration date?
This would mean the domain expired and was released.
Although you say registration was thru 2010,
maybe it wasn’t and the domain expired and was sold on TDNAM.
This would allow a continuous domain registration date
You need the receipt or some other proof to help prove your claim.
How long has the domain been under new ownership?
What is the domain?
How long has it been under the new ownership?
good article…keep it up.
For the latest dirt on Godaddy go http://www.nodaddy.com lets put some pressure on them scums.
Standard Tactics, LLC and ***Robert Rosenpink pleads guilty ***
Robert Rosenpink together with, GoDaddy formed a subsidiary called Standard Tactics, LLC in New Mexico. … (headed by) … Scottsdale, Arizona lawyer Robert J. Rosepink.
http://www.azag.gov/press_releases/may/2008/galyon%20et%20al%20indictment%20release.pdf.
Standard Tactics, LLC and ***Robert Rosenpink pleads guilty ***
Robert Rosenpink together with, GoDaddy formed a subsidiary called Standard Tactics, LLC in New Mexico. … (headed by) … Scottsdale, Arizona lawyer Robert J. Rosepink.
http://www.azag.gov/press_releases/may/2008/galyon%20et%20al%20indictment%20release.pdf.
The Arizone Republic reports today that Robert Rosenpink pleaded guilty to 4 counts acording to the Arizona Attorney Genera’ls Office Robert Rosenpink is scheduled to be sentenced on May 4th 2009 in Maricopa Superior Court the plea deal is that he must pay up to 10 million restitution.
All I can say Robert Parsons and Robet Rosenpink seems like birds of a feather LOL I wonder if Scumbob is next with all the SKELETONS he has in his closet
Want to transfer 43000 + domain names from GoDaddy to……
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Hello…
I’m part of a online club who collects domain names. We have together more than 43.000 domain names with GoDaddy.
Part of the reason to do it with GoDaddy was all the benefits with “Go Daddy Hosting Connection”
Now that they changed 3 weeks ago, without notice the benefits which comes with the free credits and therefor the “Go Daddy Hosting Connection” we want to change from registrar.
Anybody aware of a free transfer from Go Daddy to….Huh without upgrading all your domain names with an extra year of registration?
We have currently 76 accounts with GoDaddy. The largest hold around 3000 domain names. Anybody else want to joy our re listing action and make a bold fist to godaddy???
Let me know…
read also my post from this morning….
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Rohan Offline
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Re: Want to transfer 43000 + domain names from GoDaddy to……
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You will need to contact registrars to negotiate some bulk pricing.
I do not believe it is possible to transfer a domain WITHOUT adding an additional year to it. However again some registrar may be able to to make an exception to this.
Please browse our “alternatives” section of the forum and contact as many registrars as possible with your situation…hopefully someone will be able to help you run away from GoDaddy.
http://forums.nodaddy.com/index.php?topic=558
GoDaddy crashed a 10 years old website
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Alright, here is my story.
A good friend of mine runs http://www.LockPickersMall.com which used to be hosted on GoDaddy.
This is a locksmith website selling LockPicking Tools. As you may know, it is perfectly legal to buy, possess or sell Lock Pick and LockSmith Tools in every US state. There is no law against that and in fact my friend sells it through paypal.
…
Well, I guess you can guess the rest of the story, huh? LockPickersMall had been up with GoDaddy for 2 years until they finally decided they didn’t want to host a perfectly legal – and legit – lockpicking shop. Hundreds of satisfied customers and they cut the plug.
First, they cut the hosting. My friend lost THOUSANDS of dollars in sales. Like this wasn’t enough, THEY ALSO SUSPENDED THE DOMAIN. Why? Why would they need to suspend the domain??? What’s the point.
At first, they didn’t even want to let my friend transfer the domain. It took many calls just to get the DOMAINS and the files on the server were NEVER recovered no matter what they told.
Oh, he had to pay their “fines” too. Thanksfully he had copies of the pages at home, but not of the database. 2 years of transactions lost for NO reasons. ONE e-mail, ONE representative and the website was gone – POOFED!
Godaddy never gave my friend a reason, only “according to TOS bla bla bla”. This is utter crap. Not only did my friend lose sales, he had to PAY these scammers!!!!
GODADDY IS ABSOLUTE CRAP. GO WITH A REAL HOST!
LockPickersMall.com has been with its current host for 7 years without any problem. I ±£¤@£¤hate Godaddy
Stay away from GoDaddy
http://forums.nodaddy.com/index.php?topic=556.0;topicseen
I am in the process of building my website and was going to let GoDaddy host it. After your post, I think I have changed my mind.But, who would you recommend? Please advise. How about Homestead?
Thanks for your help
Wow. I knew GoDaddy was a sleazy outfit but this confirms it on a whole new level.
@michael – look into 1and1.com. They’re reasonably priced and even their most basic package includes a lot of things many hosts make you pay extra for.
GoDaddy is an extremely corrupt company. Checkout http://www.nodaddy.com .
I think that a lot of what these big companies do to the consumers is total BS!
I started like everyone does. Saw a nice ad at the super bowl. Now … too late for some things i have done… I find out go daddy is a blood sucking parasite piece of camel crap that stinks worse than rotting eggs. They should rot. I well boycott them with all my energy. No Daddy!!!
Hi,
Nothing has really changed Go Daddy Group Steal from customers.
See
http://www.ecosolarheating.net
http://www.ecosolarheat.net
The fact is th Go Daddy Group are supposed to be Service Providers, their ICANN Accrediated Status suggests they can be trusted to provide services.
It appears that ICANN are happy to sit back and allow questionable trading standards by Registrars.
Perhaps it is time for Government regulation because the Registrars cannot be trusted and the watchdog (ICANN) has gone to sleep.
@ Peter
GO BUY YOUR DOMAINS:
http://www.ecosolarheat.net
http://www.ecosolarheating.net
They’re unregistered. Buy them from the registrar of your choice. (Not bad domains, either!)
Hi Stephen,
I do own the domains
http://www.ecosolarheat.net
http://www.ecosolarheating.net
They are working web sites not for Solar Systems at the moment the content is building the story on how the .com domains were effectively stolen by the Go Daddy Group.
When I buy a domain for business purposes I buy the .com and .net purely for marketing purposes.
When building a brand the last thing any of us need is to find that a working .com web site is competing with the .net domain.
Many people do not see what happened to me with the Go Daddy Group can happen to anyone who is using the services of a Wild West Domains Reseller.
Very few of the general public know there is a difference between a Registrar and Reseller.
The Go Daddy Group use Wild West Domains Registry to manage the Resellers, of course many of the Resellers do not know their biggest competitor Go Daddy .com is the big Sister / Brother of Wild West Domains.
baidu
Well, I can tell you that they are doing it all again. Just using wildwestdomains.com instead of standardtactics.com.
When So many people have talked bad on he illegal practices of Godaddy, why not anyone takes Godaddy to Court?
every business must have their own original strategy! otherwise they will not become the no1 in their industry! I am not godaddy fans, but I also don’t use them as register! at least not now, but personally I don’t blame godady doing this kind of tac tic! after all most of domineer basically cybersquatting! they just don’t admitted to the public! I saw so many domaineer reseller buying a domain from collecter, and after pay close attention actually they checking one by one they using artbitrage tac tic! and they make millions of dollar! selling domain is not a investment! like forex, blogging or selling stock! but they use their Com power to blackmail dot net owner! and it works every time! my point is! lets just admitted! businessman don’t do gambling! they are opportunist! I.e easy money!